MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Melamine scandal virtually grounds China's dairy exports

China's dairy exports have all but ground to a halt following the scandal earlier this year when milk was tainted with the industrial chemical melamine. Data reported in the country's state media suggests that dairy exports fell 92% year-on-year in October.

Meanwhile China's Ministry of Health has revised the number of infants who died after drinking tainted products. It now says as many as six infants died and up to 492,000 suffered from urinary tract ailments including kidney stones. That figure is a lot higher than had previously been reported. More than 850 children are still being treated in hospital; at least 150 of them are said to be seriously ill. In the first part of this year an average of 12,000 tonnes of dairy products were exported each month. In October, after the scandal broke, that fell to just over 1,000 tonnes. Last month the Food and Drug Administration in the United States imposed an import alert which made it hard for Chinese firms to export their products to the US. The businesses involved are hoping that a meeting between Chinese leaders and the US Treasury Secretary in Beijing on Thursday, part of a regular economic dialogue, will produce an easing of restrictions imposed on them. In related news the Beijing press reported that China's manufacturing output fell sharply in November. The official purchasing managers' index declined to 38.8 in November, from 44.6 in October, with any figure under 50 indicating a contraction. The fall was caused by a sharp drop in new orders, especially from abroad. China's President Hu Jintao has warned that the global financial crisis is hitting the country's competitiveness. The latest official figure from the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing was the worst since the data was first published in 2004. Government economist Zhang Ligun said the economy was now "slowing down at an accelerating rate".